In a digital video broadcast system, a headend component uses Quadrature Amplitude Modulator (QAM) devices or Internet Protocol (IP) services to deliver audio/video (AV) content to a set-top box as a Moving Pictures Expert Group (MPEG) stream. The MPEG stream may include “live” advertisements or addressable advertisements (e.g., targeted advertisements). The addressable advertisements are placed in a parallel QAM or an IP service that is synchronized with the “live” advertisements. Software on the set-top box that includes a digital video recorder (DVR) determines whether to perform a transition to the addressable advertisement based on various traits, such as demographics, purchase history, observed behavior, or the like.
Impression reporting is a mechanism for gathering valuable information that is later used to decide how to better target the correct advertisement to the appropriate subscriber. Thus, there is a need to gather the information to determine whether the subscriber watched a particular advertisement, and their DVR activity or play mode status during playback. This DVR activity includes normal mode playback and trick mode playback, where trick mode playback includes pausing the playback, using skip to avoid watching a particular advertisement, or using fast-forward or rewind to either get to and watch a particular advertisement, or minimize the amount of time spent watching a particular advertisement. The change from normal mode playback to trick mode playback is referred to herein as a trick mode change.
The solution should associate tags with segment transitions in recorded content at strategic locations. The tag should store information that identifies the type of segment, and information about the segment. The solution should also provide a flexible notification mechanism that is not specific to any addressable advertisement system or triggering mechanism. The tags have a specialized notification mechanism that allow for notification during a playback operation relative to the segment transitions, and that provide information on the playback stream position and/or time of the notification.
There is a need for an impression data collecting mechanism for the playback of a recorded digital video stream that can be used to gather valuable information that is useful for deciding how to better target the correct advertisement to the appropriate subscriber. The presently disclosed invention satisfies this demand.